Predictors of excessive internet use among adolescents in Spain: The relevance of the relationship between parents and their children

Since the introduction of the concept in the late nineties, Internet addiction has been a growing phenomenon becoming a public health issue that cannot be ignored nowadays. Focusing on adolescents, previous research has analyzed the prevalence of excessive Internet use and determined several predictors such as socio-demographic characteristics, personality traits or emotions. To move on this topic, this paper draws attention to the relationship between parents and their children. Using a nationally representative sample of 37, 486 students aged 14–18 years old in Spain, an under researched European country, this study finds that care received from parents [B = -0.141, SE = -0.033] and parents'' knowledge about where [B = -0.065, SE = -0.032] and with whom [B = -0.232, SE = -0.032] the adolescent is while he/she goes out at night are associated with lower levels of excessive Internet use. In turn, fixing clear rules does not help reduce excessive Internet use. These results, together with the influence of other control variables, offer important insights and implications to prevent adolescents from excessive Internet use

Rebuilding public trust in government administrations through e-government actions

AbstractCitizen trust in the public administration has been reduced worldwide due to recent events such as the current economic situation, corruption cases or disclosure of classified information. This work analyzes whether e-government related actions could be strategically employed to increase citizen trust in the public administration. This research confirms that perceived quality of public e-services has a positive effect on trust in the public administration. In turn, public administration communication (i.e., campaigns to promote the benefits and use of e-government) only influence trust in the public administration for citizens with a favorable attitude towards e-government. These results have interesting implications suggesting in which ways public administration should invest their limited resources in order to recover the levels of citizen trust

Social media promotions and travelers’ value-creating behaviors: the role of perceived support

Purpose: Encouraging travelers to create value that benefits firms is of great relevance for companies that operate in online contexts. The purpose of this study is to investigate, focusing on online travel agencies, how monetary promotions (i.e. economic incentives) and non-monetary promotions (i.e. draws and contests) conducted through social media enhance customers’ voluntary behaviors (i.e. suggestions, word of mouth, and social media interactions) that go beyond brand choice, which may provide benefit to firms. Design/methodology/approach: The research model draws on the social exchange theory, equity theory and the concept of perceived support – how customers perceive that companies care about their well-being. The authors collect information from 491 users of online travel agencies in Spain and test their hypotheses using partial least squares. They also evaluate the existence of indirect effects. Findings: Promotions developed by companies make customers more likely to perform, voluntarily, the helping behaviors of suggestions, word of mouth and social media interactions, through the influence of perceived support. Research limitations/implications: Use of a single survey to collect measures and restriction of the sample to Spanish-speaking travelers suggests caution in generalizing the results. Future research could investigate other company-initiated actions and other value-creating behaviors of travelers. Practical implications: Promotions help develop perceived support for customers, which leads to voluntary, valuable traveler behaviors. Promotions may be also sufficient to trigger some customer behaviors, such as word-of-mouth. Originality/value: Based on the social exchange and equity theories, this paper investigates the influence of social media promotions on customers’ voluntary behaviors via perceived support

Perceived value of AI-based recommendations¿ service: the case of voice assistants

The application of artificial intelligence in services is continuously spreading. In particular, one of the most important recent trends is the development of virtual assistants, more particularly; voice assistants, which provide consumers with various services (e.g. information, music) and with product and service recommendations based on their preferences. There is a need to understand how valuable these recommendations are for consumers. This study contributes to the emerging body of research into consumers’ use of the recommendations that voice assistants make in three key ways: (1) by analysing the roles of the benefits (i.e. convenience, compatibility, personalisation) they derive and costs they expend (i.e. cognitive effort, intrusiveness) in the value creation process related to voice assistants’ recommendations; (2) by evaluating the effect of social presence (the key voice assistant feature) on perceived value of voice assistants’ recommendations, through the benefits and costs associated with voice assistants and (3) by determining how the perceived value of voice assistants’ recommendations affects consumer engagement. An online survey was used to collect data. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyse the conceptual model. The core findings of the study are as follows. First, social presence enhances the benefits (especially personalisation) and reduces the costs (except for cognitive effort) associated with voice assistants. Second, personalisation was shown to be the strongest determinant of the perceived value of voice assistants’ recommendations, but their intrusiveness is a potential inhibitor in the way of increasing their value. Third, a positive relationship was observed between the perceived value of voice assistants’ recommendations and consumer engagement with the assistants

The role of utilitarian and hedonic aspects in the continuance intention to use social mobile apps

The purpose of this research is to understand the main factors that determine users’ continuance intention to use social mobile Apps, considering two utilitarian (i.e., perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use) variables and a hedonic (i.e., perceived enjoyment) variable. As social mobile Apps may be utilitarian or hedonic, we aim to evaluate possible differences in the significance of the aforementioned antecedent factors in utilitarian Apps (i.e., TripAdvisor) and hedonic Apps (i.e., Instagram). The data were collected from an international sample of users; the Partial Least Squares method was applied to analyze the research model, using SMARTPLS 3.0. To analyze the moderating effects, a multi-group PLS analysis was carried out to compare the differences between the path relationships in the two Apps. The results show that continuance intention to use is explained by perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, satisfaction and user experience (control variable), and the impact of utilitarian variables is generally greater for utilitarian Apps, whereas the impact of perceived enjoyment is higher for hedonic Apps. This study contributes to the general body of knowledge about mobile Apps by providing a comprehensive theoretical foundation and practical implications that illuminate the continuance use of social mobile Apps

Rebuilding public trust in government administrations through e-government actions

Citizen trust in the public administration has been reduced worldwide due to recent events such as the current economic situation, corruption cases or disclosure of classified information. This work analyzes whether e-government related actions could be strategically employed to increase citizen trust in the public administration. This research confirms that perceived quality of public e-services has a positive effect on trust in the public administration. In turn, public administration communication (i.e., campaigns to promote the benefits and use of e-government) only influence trust in the public administration for citizens with a favorable attitude towards e-government. These results have interesting implications suggesting in which ways public administration should invest their limited resources in order to recover the levels of citizen trust

Consumer Behavior In Firm-hosted Online Travel Communities

Online travel communities are an increasing phenomenon that is motivating deep changes in the travel industry. The purpose of this work is to explain consumer intention to participate in these communities and loyalty to the firm that hosts the community. To do that, we propose a model that integrates Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Social Identity Theory in order to explain the intention to participate in online travel communities. In addition, we analyze the link between the intention to participate in the community and two behavioral intentions that may benefit the host firm: intention to use the firm products/services and the intention to recommend the host firm. Results reveal that TPB, TAM and Social Identity Theory form an appropriate framework to explain the intention to participate in the community. In addition, we find a positive effect of intention to participate in an online travel community on the two behavioral intentions considered. Based on these results, some conclusions and implications are proposed

Understanding Consumer Interaction on Instagram: The Role of Satisfaction, Hedonism, and Content Characteristics

The increasing relevance of Instagram and its growing adoption among top brands suggest an effort to better understand consumers'' behaviors within this context. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of perceived hedonism and satisfaction in determining consumers'' intentions to interact and their actual interaction behaviors (the number of likes, by tapping a heart icon, and comments) in a brand''s official Instagram account. Also, we investigate the effect of consumer perceptions about the characteristics of the content generated in the account (perceived originality, quantity, and quality) on their perceived hedonism and satisfaction. Data were collected in two stages from 808 members of a fashion brand''s official Instagram account. First, participants answered an online questionnaire to evaluate their perceptions, satisfaction, and interaction intentions. Second, 1 month later, we measure the number of likes and comments done by each participant in the brand''s official Instagram account during that month. Using partial least squares to analyze the data, perceived hedonism is found to affect both satisfaction and the intention to interact in Instagram, which in turn influences actual behavior. Besides, perceived originality is the most relevant content characteristic to develop perceived hedonism. These findings offer managers a general vision of consumers'' behaviors on Instagram, highlighting the importance of hedonism to create a satisfactory experience

Frontline robots in tourism and hospitality: service enhancement or cost reduction?

Robots are being implemented in many frontline services, from waiter robots in restaurants to robotic concierges in hotels. A growing number of firms in hospitality and tourism industries introduce service robots to reduce their operational costs and to provide customers with enhanced services (e.g. greater convenience). In turn, customers may consider that such a disruptive innovation is altering the established conditions of the service-provider relationship. Based on attribution theory, this research explores how customers’ attributions about the firm motivations to implement service robots (i.e. cost reduction and service enhancement) are affecting customers’ intentions to use and recommend this innovation. Following previous research on robot’s acceptance, our research framework analyzes how these attributions may be shaped by customers’ perceptions of robot’s human-likeness and their affinity with the robot. Structural equation modelling is used to analyze data collected from 517 customers evaluating service robots in the hospitality industry; results show that attributions mediate the relationships between affinity toward the robot and customer behavioral intentions to use and recommend service robots. Specifically, customer’s affinity toward the service robot positively affects service improvement attribution, which in turn has a positive influence on customer behavioral intentions. In contrast, affinity negatively affects cost reduction attribution, which in turn has a negative effect on behavioral intentions. Finally, human-likeness has a positive influence on affinity. This research provides practitioners with empirical evidence and guidance about the introduction of service robots and its relational implications in hospitality and tourism industries. Theoretical advances and future research avenues are also discussed

Effects of voice assistant recommendations on consumer behavior

The present study compares the influence of text-based recommendations; traditionally known as online consumer reviews, and the influence of voice-based recommendations provided by voice-driven virtual assistants on consumer behaviors. Based on media richness theory, the research model investigates how voice versus text modality influences consumers' perceptions of credibility and usefulness, as well as their behavioral intentions and actual behaviors. In addition, the study analyses if these relationships vary based on the type of product and compares the influence of masculine and feminine voices. Two studies were conducted using between-subjects experimental designs, partial least squares-structural equation modeling, and logistic regression. The core finding is that voice-based recommendations are more effective than online consumer reviews in altering consumer behaviors. In addition, the first study showed that the influence of recommendations on behavioral intentions is mediated by consumers' perceptions of their credibility and usefulness. The second study confirmed, in a realistic setting, that voice-based recommendations affect consumer choices to a greater extent. Recommendations for search products and provided by males are also found to be more effective. These results contribute to the voice assistant and e-WOM literature by highlighting the effectiveness of voice-based recommendations in predicting consumer behaviors, confirming that credibility and usefulness are key factors that determine the influence of recommendations, and showing that recommendations are more effective when they focus on search products